Community storm Blantyre District Council Offices over delayed public works wages
Scores of community members from Pensulo Village in Chigwaja Ward in Blantyre on Tuesday gathered at the Blantyre District Council Offices (New Govt. Building) to push for their delayed public works wages.
The aggrieved people worked in a galley maintenance project that was a component under the Malawi Flood Emergency Recovery Project (MFERP).
The move by the community members follows empty promises by KK Security, an organization subcontracted by MFERP to make the payments failed to take place despite informing the community members to assemble for the payment which they did for three consecutive times.
Investigations by the Malawi News Agency (MANA) revealed that the communities are owed over K 2 million for 161 members each expected to be paid K 14, 400.
In an interview Tuesday, Hamilton Moya, Chairperson of the group told MANA that the people felt cheated by the authorities hence their flocking the District Council Offices to present their grievances.
“We finished the work by 26 November 2016 and payment was supposed to be done soon after, as we intended to use the money for fertilizer purchase but up to now we never got the cash and surely people are frustrated,” explained Moya.
Speaking on behalf of KK Security, Chief Controller for the Department of Cash Services Wilson Majawa blamed the delay on their huge workload saying during the days they were suppossed to pay the people at Pensulo, they were paying other communities.
On his part, the Director of Planning and Development (DPD) for Blantyre District Council Francis Matewere expressed discontentment with the way KK Security is handling the cash release as the delays are subjecting people to suffering.
“We have elderly people who have walked all the way from Pensulo Village to this place in search for money that they lawfully deserve and this is not right, “explained Matewere.
According to Matewere, the council handles cash dispensation for Local Development Fund (LDF) and no such anomalies have been experienced.
MFERP aims at restoring; agricultural livelihoods, reconstructing critical public infrastructures to improve standards in the flood affected districts and improve government of Malawi’s disaster response and recovery capacities.
.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
the best way is to consult . the truth of the matter is KK did not delay but the organizers, the duty of KK is to distribute the funds on behalf on Blantyre city Council and MFEREP. and what KK did was just to carry out orders from the owners of the project as to where they should start distributing the funds. For your information KK is carrying these exercises with different organisations and is going out smoothly why only Blantyre City Council. and KK does not know who worked on that particular month. KK do have final order to… Read more »
That’s not the problem of Blantyre District Council Bwana Billy. KK was not even engaged by Blantyre District Council.
If KK Security is failing why can’t Blantyre office subcontract another firm which can deliver??